Opinion

SOA Expert Podcast Show 33…My Interview with ARCast a Crosscast

SOA Expert Podcast Show 33…My Interview with ARCast a Crosscast Listen to the latest SOA Expert Podcast…

Compiling exploit code: a network-security must

Testing exploits will show just how vulnerable your network is — or isn't

User-centric identity brings federation close to home

Agreements between peers can add up to an effective federation

The hidden challenges of federated identity

Federation is the logical goal of identity infrastructures, but achieving it takes more than just technology

Scaling a federated identity infrastructure

Most identity federations start small, but as they grow in size you may need to rethink your approach

Can the United States stay on the throne of IT?

New report urges an odd mix of Reaganomics and socialism to help ensure its reign

Traditional IT versus SOA Architects…There is a Difference

I'm done with my worldwide tour, SF, Vegas, and Orlando yesterday. Good use of time, but boy is travel a pain these days. The EAC conference is a great opportunity to speak to the more "traditional" IT architects, or old school, which

Kashya extends its data-recovery parachute

New version of data protection platform allows consistent cross-application recovery

No-cost solutions in the anti-spam ecosystem

Blacklists, whitelists, and greylists are all essential spam-fighting tools. Here's how your organization can use them effectively

Blacklisters on the front lines

What thanks do you get for maintaining a blacklist? Malware and denial-of-service attacks

Start plotting your Vista migration map

It may only be March, but moving to the newest version of Windows takes serious planning

A day in the life of a mail server

Think your life is hard? A mail server's is harder — it spends far more time killing spam than delivering mail

New Podcast Out There Show 32…EAC Keynote 12 Steps to SOA

Listen to the latest SOA Expert Podcast — EAC Keynote 12 Steps to SOA. Slides are here: Download file…

Handling a peer who works short hours

Dear Bob …I read your response to The Perfessor (Handling a boss who works short hours, March 11, 2006). My situation is different: I'm dealing with a new peer in the company. We're both senior managers. He's new, and his core compet

Metered Web services

The ability to track usage will enable the future business model for network services

The Intel-AMD processor race revs up

Intel’s Core microarchitecture has some predicting AMD’s doom. Dream on …

Do good work, lose your job

Basic economics: One well-paid employee is cheaper than two poorly paid ones

Homeland Security probes L-1 visa abuses

Office of the Inspector General finds significant flaws in overseas hiring program

Dealing with execs who equate IT and typewriters

Dear Bob …I am the IT manager for a small company (125 employees, IT staff 5 including me, 125 workstations, four servers).  Our annual revenue is about $135 Million.Although I don't have a lot of IT experience (just computer basics,

Software as a service: The next big thing

Applications are evolving in a Web ecosystem. Will enterprises one day get their key applications through the Web?

Veteran venture capitalist is sold on SaaS

Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners discusses the remarkable momentum of software as a service

What about those Salesforce.com outages?

Any way you slice it, SaaS applications are a single point of failure for a host of customers

Desktop Linux remains a hard sell for hardware vendors

Not even the upgrade headaches of Vista seem likely to counter Windows' inertia

Who’s Bullish on SaaS?

Software as a service has momentum, but success isn’t inevitable

Defining IT governance

Dear Bob … I respect your pragmatic approach to business. You have a way of filtering through the buzz-words and the management fads to the real issues. I am a relatively new IT employee and I have been asked to briefly explain IT Governance to the

Wrapping up the SOA Exec Forum

I had a great time speaking at the forum yesterday, including meeting the people I communicate with on line, but never get a chance to meet in person. Also, pretty much anybody who is anybody in the SOA world is moving on to SPARK this weekend…so I

Port knocking: A security idea whose time has come

Requiring a "combination" before connecting clients to network services is a good idea — it can't hurt, and it just might help

Do you believe in the power of telecom mergers?

Verizon and AT&T must prove they can be as agile and customer-focused as the niche players

New Podcast Out There…Show 30! SOA and ROI Talk at SOA Exec Forum

I Hate Users

First Day of my Tour…At the SOA Executive Forum

First day of the tour today, and I'm in San Francisco at the InfoWorld SOA Executive Forum. I'm doing a SOA and ROI talk at 10:45 this morning. That's going to be an interesting topic for me, just wondering about the interest from the

Modern strategies for managing Microsoft Exchange

A range of tools and services help admins make the most of enterprise messaging

A first look at Microsoft Exchange Server 12

New version improves management, integration, and brings a souped-up Web client

Expanding beyond the storage fabric

Brocade and McData set out to prove they're more than just switch vendors

SMBs should consider axing Exchange

Less expensive alternatives, such as Gordano, provide smaller companies with just the features they need

The impact of faint praise

Dear Bob …I just received an e-mail from my manager. Here's the complete text:Forwarded From:  Manager To:  Staff   FYI——————————————– Forwarded From: CIO To:  Managers &nbsp

Microsoft builds bridges with Live Clipboard

Ray Ozzie's new code example brings Windows and Web applications closer together

Cheap, fast, portable servers are no longer the stuff of daydreams

What will two grand buy these days? How about a server blade you can cart around with you

The real downside of a Fortune 500 analyst job

Overtime hours are eating up your life, and the boss is cracking the whip. Your options?

Microsoft: A 21st-century has-been?

As the Redmond-based giant struggles to remain relevant, time and technology are passing it by

Need trends? Try Cacti.

If you haven't already seen Cacti, take a look now. I'll wait… Back already? Great. For what seems like eons, MRTG has been the graphing/trending tool du jour for throughput data. Tons of hacks have turned MRTG into a graphing tool for ot

How to hire heroes

Dear Bob … Your last KJR ("More Katrina lessons," 3/6/2006, which explained that having great employees is more important than having great processes) was unexpected. I didn't expect to hear someone admit publicly how vast a chasm ex

Thoughts on the Government and SOA

Not sure if you have much insight into the government marketplace for technology if you live outside of the DC area, but from where I sit (20 miles outside of DC), the US government push into SOA is full steam ahead….

The Internet is flat; AOL just doesn’t know it

The online giant makes a halfhearted attempt at opening its instant messaging service

SOA planning: Sizing up business processes

Successful service-oriented architectures begin with process modeling and careful collaboration between IT architects and business stakeholders

DoD puts SOA into action

A long history of process modeling helps the U.S. Transportation Command launch a promising SOA initiative

Maximizing the business value of SOA

Steps in business processes map to digital services, which can then be recomposed into new process-driven applications on the fly

Dilbert knows SOA

A service-oriented architecture starts with a dialogue between business and IT

Ultra, indeed.

A few weeks ago, Alan Zeichick took a look at Sun's new Ultra 20. The Ultra 40 didn't ship in time to meet his deadline, although I received an eval unit last week and decided to follow up. Buying a new server is like buying a car. You hem

Handling a boss who works short hours

Dear Bob  … I use your book, Leading IT: The Toughest Job in the World, for my university classes. An interesting question come out of our discussion of your chapter on motivation.  "We work in a separate building from the bi